Wednesday

Created this fun printable to set out on display in an H&H frame during the Snowflakes & Plaid party I threw. Thought this saying tied in the whole concept I wanted my friends to receive that day. Celebrating the uniqueness that is in each one of us. Just like no two snowflakes are unique, either are plaid prints, have you noticed that? Love all the variety & character that each print & snowflake has.

Thanks for stopping by. All the details from my Snowflakes & Plaid party, like where I got the darling plaid garland from & wooden/plaid snowflake can be found on the post below. Be sure to check it out.

Tuesday

Wanted to share with you all some pictures of a fun party I threw a few weeks ago. The theme was snowflakes & plaids. Well..... just because I'm smitten with them both! I decided to invite some girlfriends over for a fun afternoon of tasty food, great conversations & throw an activity to into the mix. It's always fun to get together & sometimes you just have to create a reason to visit, especially during wintertime that can seem to drag on & on.

It's always exciting to receive an invitation isn't it? I think so, so I gave everyone a cute invite with a wooden snowflake attached, just to set the tone for the day. Everyone was asked to bring a few magazines they like to thumb through, read & inspire them & also a snack to share.

Of coarse when you ever throw a get together you have to set the stage for something special! Again going with the plaid & snowflake theme I just grabbed everything I had & tied it all together. Love how it looked to welcome everyone in for the afternoon. Pops of color, plaid & glitter of coarse.

-These bar stool slip covers just are so charming! Grateful for talented friends who know how to sew & do it well. These were custom made for me by @lemonystitch Find her over on Instagram. Still trying to improve their functionality though, super cute but also super slippery. Any thoughts on how to make them stick better to my stools & stay put? Comments & suggestions welcome. -

Fun to get grab all sorts of snowflakes- big, small, glittery, glass, wood you name it & set them out on display. Sprinkled fake snow around them & even nestled a few in jars with glittered snowballs for a wintery touch. I've said it once & all say it again collections come in handy all the time! Pays off to collect- vintage thermos, bottle brush trees & snowflakes. This whole set up- didn't buy a thing! Just went into the storage room, holiday bins & shopped what I had.

-Ok, I guess I did buy this wooden plaid snowflake but I just had to when I saw it- was just too perfect with my party theme. You can purchase one for yourself at details2enjoy.com. Tell them the honeybee sent you! -

More snowflakes stacked & tucked into place with a sprinkling of fresh fallen fake snow & glittered snowballs thrown in.

Whenever I throw a shin dig or get together you bet there will be garlands & this one is just down right perfect. Love all the mismatched plaids, colors & prints. Definitely says winter & emulates coziness & that's exactly what I wanted.

-Plaid Garland: @lemonystitch hung up some snowflake ornaments too from the white felt ball garland- just for a little extra something-

Since I love snowflakes so much & enjoy having a collection of my own I wanted to give my friends something to start their collection off or maybe that they could add or simply put on display as a reminder of a wonderful afternoon. At each place setting there was a snowflake tucked into a little plaid draw string back. Each snowflake was different, unique & one of a kind. Just like each one of my friends!

The activity portion of the day begin after lunch! {posting recipes later, so come back} Time to get creative & have some FuN! Everyone grabbed their magazines that they had brought with them. I've talked about how much I LOVE & look forward to creating a visual collage board every year. You can read more, HERE & HERE about it. It really is such a learning activity & a great way to interact with family or friends & in the end walk away with something meaningful & special to specifically you.

-My totally awesome friend Erika! Isn't she the cutest, just comfy on the couch looking through magazine pages. She even cut her ski day short to come because she didn't want to miss out. I LOVED that! We even had 6 inches of fresh powder the night before, so that's saying something- thanks friend. -

Really simple! Start bylooking through magazines & ripping out ANYTHING that jumps out at you, attracts your eye or tugs at your heart. DO NOT question why just rip out the page. It would be because of the picture, the colors on the page, a letter, saying or even a number. Just rip, tear & even share with your friends. I loved doing this with my friends because we should pass a page to someone because it reminded us of them or show them something they would like & even swap magazines that we had brought with friends. So much FUN!

Once you've looked through all the magazines you want too, have a pretty good stack of pages, then you go back through all the ripped pages & cut out specifically the thing that you like on that page. Cut it down to size & discard the rest of the page. Once you have everything cut out, get a piece of paper- any size you like & lay out all your pictures onto the page, when it is how you like it, grab a glue stick & start glueing.

There is no set time limit to this activity. It can {& has} taken most of the day before if you want it too or if your friends have to leave they have started it & can finish on their own. No rules, just create. Later that night it was so awesome to receive texts from my girlfriends showing me there finished collages. I could see each one of their personalities, interests & likes in every collage.

Such a wonderful thing to look at & start off the new year right with such an inspiring thing to look at & reflect on. Collages can go ANYWHERE! Hang in in your closet, put it up on the magnet board, frame it & display as a piece of art, put it in the cover of a

binder whatever works for you & where you're sure to see it & be inspired.

I hope each one of my friends realized how amazing & unique they are & that they felt special during our fun afternoon of snowflakes & plaids. Speaking of that there will be a FREE printable talking about just that on the blog tomorrow so be sure to come back.

I love hearing from you! Whenever I open up my email, check Instagram, receiving messages from Square or Paypal. It's always a thrill to get messages or mail, makes my day. So imagine my interest when I received an email a couple of weeks ago asking if I'd take part in a blogging interview series on another blog. Was so flattered that someone would ask little old me to participate. I jumped at the opportunity & quickly replied to my friend Ashlee from, A Chick's Fix in the Stix.

{how cute is that name?}

She got right back to me & gave me 5 simple questions to answer. It was fun to sit & think of what my answers would be, although my response to question #4 took awhile because I have so many to choose from

{I'll not let you know what the question was, I'll keep you in suspense. Go to her blog to find out}

but I quickly realized what my answer was.

So fun to get to share things I adore, favorite hang outs & events I have going on with her readers & make a new friend in the process. So glad she asked & so glad I answered. Be sure to check out her cute blog & tell her the honeybee sent you. Hope I get to do something like this again in the future. Just goes to show, never be afraid to ask a question, speak up & be heard.

Saturday

Hope you are all enjoying the New Year. I'm just wrapping up all my orders for the cute little word tiles I custom create for clients. It really is such a joy for me to create them all. I'm inspired by each & every word as I put them together. It gets my year off to a great start contemplating the power in words & getting to work on such a wide variety of words for the 1st few weeks of a brand spanking new year full of opportunites & possibilites. Thought it would be fun to recap all the words that I put together this year. So here they all are in no particular order, just how they came in through orders from my online shop, @shophollyhocksandhoneybees Wanted to write them down to remember & who knows they might inspire you along the way too.

Create *Enjoy

Inspire

Embrace

Love

Be Present *

Change

Gratitude

Light *

Organized *

Simplify *

Adventure

Feel

Believe

Future

Transform

Cherish

Move

Breather

Blessed

Echo

Intent

Restore

Bright

Strengthen

Intent

Seek

Charity

Thrive

Trust

Energy

Conquer

Friendship

Cool

Journey

Fearless

Reinvent

Peace

Effortless

*these words were popular this year & made up more than one.

Oh, I just love seeing them all listed! There are some people out there who are going to have a pretty memorable year with words like these to inspire & guide them. Such a great thing to do.

-The finished product. This was round one of H&H #littlewordtiles that shipping out. Always fun to see them finished, piled up & each one unique & special-

Grateful to Ali Edwards for introducing such a great concept of picking One Little Word each year.

{STILL waiting for my word to speak to me, I have it narrowed down to 3, so getting closer. Not sure why I'm slow this year ;)}

Have a great weekend! Going to try & be REALLY good & eat well tomorrow {Sundays are hard!} & not drink pop either {day 6 of no caffeine or pop, wa-hoo!} Hit the gym 4 days this past week & looking forward to doing it all again starting on Monday. Love it!

Happy New Year friends! Hope you're year is off to a great start so far. Our 1st mantel of the year is up. Sparkly & festive!

I wanted to share a yummy discovery that 2016 has already brought to our home. Surprising how sweet one little change can bring. My husband's birthday is on Dec. 31st

{so fun to celebrate with New Year's Eve}

He requested something a bit different than a traditional birthday cake to celebrate his special day this year. He wanted oatmeal choc. chip coconut cookies. So the girls & I did just that for him! We took our FAVORiTE oatmeal cc cookie recipe- New Jersey Cookies & added some sweet coconut in at the end that produced pure JoY!

{reminded all of us of eating an Almond Joy}

Jersey JoY Cookies

1 C. Butter {softened}

1 C. Sugar

1 C. Brown Sugar

2 Eggs

1 1/2 C. Flour

1 tsp. Vanilla

1tsp. Soda

1tsp. Salt

3 C. Oatmeal

1 pkg. Semi-Sweet mini Chocolate Chips

1 cup sweetened coconut

Cream butter & sugars together then add eggs. Add soda, salt,
flour, oatmeal & vanilla to the sugar mixture and mix together
well. Add chocolate chips & coconut in at the end & give it a good mix.
When everything is combined set in the fridge to chill for 1 hour. {Hard to wait, I know but it will be worth it!}

* Don't skip the chill in the fridge part, I think that is the key. Try not to eat all the dough either!

-Enjoy!!-

I think it's safe to say there's a new cookie in town! I just knew it was going to be a SWeeT 16 this year. Happy New Year everyone. Hope to get back to blogging a bit more this year. I've missed "talking" to you all on here.

The Shop is open

Well.....

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About Me

Thanks to my name meaning Honeybee in Greek & my love for flowers, Hollyhocks & Honeybees {my business} got it's name. I have a charming little studio in my house to create in {blessed} Married to one great guy & Mom to 3 amazing girls.